Interview with Lorie Beshara of Rock and Roll Coasters

My husband and I make drink coasters using 45 rpm records. We use records that aren’t playable because of scratches and skipping.

How did you get started? Have you worked in other creative areas before the kind of work you’re doing now?

I sold records on line for 8 years. 45’s were my specialty. I was throwing away about 60% of them because they were scratched and sounded bad. I was getting ready to throw away more and it was breaking my heart. I was looking at them and it suddenly occured to me how cute they would look as coasters. Tom (my husband) is very creative and figured out how to make them. It took about a year to make them look really good.

Do you work alone? With a team? Do you engage your family or friends in the work? What is your process? How do you ensure you get your work done yet still have a life?

My husband and I work together.

We first cut the record down square from 7 inch to 4×4 inches. Then we go through 3 sealing processes. We also include the little yellow thingy (45 adapter) Tom pours them in Epoxy resin (like used on bartops). He free pours them, we don’t use a mold. They cure for about 3 days. We work about 9 hours a day and do about 27 shows a year starting in March.

That’s become our life and we have a great time doing it.

Where do you sell your work? Which venues are your favorites? Do you prefer selling online or in person? Do you attend shows or fairs? Is your work in a gallery or brick-and-mortar store?

We sell on Etsy. Hopefully we’ll have a website of our own soon. We love selling in person. The coasters are much more striking in person and it’s fun to talk about the music and what people love. We do Fine Arts and Craft fairs just around Colorado.

We’ve tried selling in stores but in shows we display about 600 coasters so that people can build their own sets. That makes it really hard for a retail store.

The black that you see around the label is the vinyl. These are not just the labels or pictures of the labels. You can’t see the grooves too well because the resin is poured about 1/4 inch thick.

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